But while the campaign is enjoying high visibility across the meetings industry, there remains a lot of work ahead if the U.S. government is to reverse its current approach to business events. IMR's James Latham caught up with Christine Duffy, president and CEO of the Cruise Line International Association (a member of the coalition), to get her insights on the campaign and what meetings mean for both organizations and the communities that host them.

As Duffy noted, the CIC data (which found that meetings’ contribution to GDP increased by almost 9 percent, providing more than $115 billion towards the economy) only goes so far in telling the story in direct economic impacts. "People don't have meetings to drive economic impact," she said. "We have meetings to deliver specific business results, or provide professional education, or to motivate people to communicate. We've got to be able to quantify those returns in the same way that we quantify economic benefits."

Duffy called for more case study material and supporting data to provide insight into the value of the outputs of meetings and events—the business results, the professional development, and the adult education that results from face to face meetings and which collectively fuel the US economy.